The period immediately after 1955 was one of intense creative activity for Schein, Coulon and Magnant. They had established themselves as leaders in a new field in architecture, and proceeded to design a wide range of buildings and building components. Unfortunately they did not receive the encouragement and financial backing which they deserved and it is difficult to say why, unless it was that the plastics companies of France expected the building market to become theirs on the strength of one or two experimental structures, and then lost interest when it became evident that this most conservative of markets was not going to change overnight.

Whether this was the reason or not, the fact remains that Coulon, Schein and Magnant suffered the embittering experience of neglect in their own country, and saw other architects in other countries profit from their work and from opportunities which should so rightfully have been theirs. Nevertheless their work in the period 1956-8 was quite remarkable, and it is as fresh now as the day it was designed.

The motel cabin is an excellent example—conceived in September 1956, constructed October-November, and exhibited in December. And that is quite a timetable. One wonders where Schein would have led us by now if only the necessary backing had been forthcoming.

The cabin itself is a brilliant exercise in the development of a living capsule to cater for ten hours of night and eight hours of daytime. It includes twin beds which convert for daytime use into a couch and a table, and a splendidly compact top-lit bathroom with W.C., shower and washbasin. The g.r.p. moulding and the manipulation of the double-curvature forms were both greatly advanced from the design of the house, and the whole lightweight unit was designed for transportation by truck and grouped assembly on site.

The comment in Techniques et Architecture for December 1959 is very much to the point: Il est dommage que ce prototype n’ait pas reçu d'authentique production architecturale. (‘It is regrettable that this prototype should not have been put into proper architectural production.’)